Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Morning Routine Charts

Last school year I printed morning routine charts for the kids to follow. They put up a sticker each morning when they had completed all tasks. Then I had to remember to print out a new chart for each of them for the next week. It worked for a long time, but I wanted to try something new this year.

I looked around on the interweb and didn't see anything too different from what we've already used.

I just completed the kids' morning routine charts (charts isn't really the right word, but you'll see what I mean) last night. They practiced with them this morning, and tomorrow is the REAL DEAL (first day of school).

Here are their new morning routine trackers (trackers is a better word):

Basically, each kid starts with all the flaps open first thing in the morning. There's a picture as well as a phrase to specify each task in their morning routine. Once each task is complete, they can close that flap to show the word "Done." The magnet strips hold the flaps closed.

I still need to figure out where to put up each kid's morning routine tracker, but I think I'll use Command Strips to put them up in their bedrooms.

Right now the kids love these and are super motivated. We'll see how long it takes for the newness to wear off and the nagging to start back up. :)

Oh, and in case you're wondering, I found my pictures on Craft, Interrupted. There's a girl version and a boy version. I copied the set of pictures into PowerPoint and cropped the set down to each picture that I wanted to use. Then I inserted the black squares around each shape.

All the other details can be found in the tutorial on My Name Is Snickerdoodle (click the link above).

This is ingenious! Do you still use this? We are in the second week of kindergarten (I used it last week too determine what we need to include in our routine) Do you give rewards for a completed chart or just something like "congratulations"? I do not want to decide this prematurely and have it backfire on me. Lol

We actually don't still use these because they trained my kids well enough that they eventually just did what they needed to do without needing the charts to help them. To me, that means these morning charts were successful!

Fortunately, my kids just loved the satisfaction of closing all of their flaps to "done" and didn't need a reward. We also had great success in a previous morning chart attempt when I let them put a sticker up each morning after they had completed all their tasks. The problem with that system was that I had to print a new chart each week for them to fill in with stickers. So maybe you could do a hybrid of the two systems. Have your child use the magnetic chore chart to complete the morning routines. Once all tasks are completed, you could have him/her put up a sticker on a separate sticker chart and offer a reward once a certain number of stickers have been earned. That way you're offering an incentive without having to reward every single morning. Eventually, it all becomes habit and the reward isn't needed. For my kids in particular, these magnetic charts are what finally trained them to do what needs to be done, in the right order, in a timely fashion. Now our mornings run much more smoothly!

Bummer! You are right. It appears as though that blog has become an invitation-only private blog. Well you can still pull this off! Just use our old friend Google. I would search something like "hair brush clip art" and "toothbrush clip art" and so on. It'll be a little more time consuming than simply downloading all the pictures at once, but it's still totally doable. Good luck!

The magnet strips can be bought at Walmart, Hobby Lobby, or somewhere similar. I simply bought a roll of magnet strip that has adhesive on one side. Cut pieces the size you need, peel off the backing, and stick to your morning chart parts. The magnet strips are attracted to each other.

I used colored file folders. They already have the fold, and I cut them down to the size I wanted. They are made of a thick cardstock that is sturdy enough to hold up to daily use. These held up for longer than we even needed to use them! Once we were done using them (maybe a year?), I passed them on to a friend who used them for her kids.